In summarizing the development of contemporary city planning theory, she begins with the Garden City of Ebenezer Howard. The Garden City was conceived as a new master-planned form, a self-sufficient town removed from the noise and squalor of late 19th century London, ringed by agriculture green belts, with schools and housing surrounding a highly prescribed commercial center. The Garden City would allow a maximum of 30,000 residents in each town, and called for a permanent public authority to carefully regulate land use and ward off the temptation to increase commercial activity or population density. This book explores the pros and cons of the Garden City concept.

A pioneering urban economist offers fascinating, even inspiring proof that the city is humanity's greatest invention and our best hope for the future. America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: they're dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly... Or are they? As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America's income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.

The Los Angeles civil disturbances of 1992 brought America's long-term urban problems into new focus and raised concerns about the effectiveness of government solutions. This report attempts to provide answers in a series of essays on four general areas of urban problems: inner city; children, youth and families; crime and criminal justice; and public services and social welfare. Each essay defines the nature of the problem, describes and evaluates remedies tried in the past, and evaluates current policy ideas in terms of risks and benefits. The editors note that many serious urban problems lie outside local government's control, but federal decision makers have not been attentive to the effect of their policies at the local level. In addition, policymakers and the public need to have realistic expectations about what government can achieve, and must recognize that policy will have a limited effect at best if it tries to swim against broad social and economic currents.